Alaska North Star Necklace

A four-pointed star pendant in alternating silver and azur malachite, its geometry as precise as a surveyor's compass, this piece carries the unmistakable character of William Spratling's Alaskan foray. The "North Star" was among the models Spratling developed following his 1945 commission from the United States Department of the Interior, which sent him to Alaska to study and revitalize indigenous craft traditions. As Morrill and Berk document in *Mexican Silver* (1994), blue malachite pendants of this type represent later variations on that North Star design, translating Alaskan materials and imagery into Spratling's rigorous workshop vocabulary.

The pendant's four quadrants alternate between polished silver and inlaid azur malachite, meeting at a raised pyramidal center. At each axis, fanned ridges radiate outward and terminate in small ball finials. The result is an angular, heraldic geometry that sets this model apart from the figural or Pre-Columbian-inflected work of Spratling's earlier production. The chain is an elongated bar-link construction whose restrained horizontal rhythm is well matched to the pendant's bold symmetry.

Listed in Spratling's pre-1958 catalog, the model was also produced with tortoise shell in place of the stone, underscoring the Alaskan Project's spirit of material experimentation. The azur malachite variant, with its cool blue-green mineral texture against polished silver, represents a vivid expression of this distinctive chapter in Spratling's career.